BrightView's In-line Metrology Solution Adopted by T-Solar

(Nanowerk News) BrightView Systems, a leading provider of in-line metrology-based process control and optimization tools for thin-film solar cell manufacturing received technical acceptance and announces deployment of its InSight-M at T-Solar’s thin film solar factory at Ourence, Spain. The tool will be utilized for capturing and analyzing process maps for 100% of the produced panels, a method that will dramatically enhance productivity, drive product improvements enable novel process optimization solutions that improve long term reliability and project bankability.

T-Solar’s unique position as a vertically integrated solar power provider that manufactures the modules as well as builds the solar farms, will be the basis for a joint project between BrightView and T-Solar that will examine and analyze the relationship between process variations and long-term field performance. The global distribution of T-Solar’s PV farms, spanning Peru, Italy, France and Spain, presents unique challenges in respect to radiation levels, temperatures and other local variations. This study will provide T-Solar with unique insight that will enable customization of process parameters to specific field requirements, and will provide tools for project planners and integrators to optimize selection of photovoltaic panels.

“T-Solar is making great strides in process optimization by using the BrightView InSight-M system,” said Benny Shoham, CEO of BrightView. “As T-Solar operates its own solar farms, partnering with them provides us with an opportunity to contribute our process knowledge and optimization tools for enhancing field performance qualities of the panels that are directly related to project planning and bankability.”

“BrightView has enabled us to gain the insight we needed into our manufacturing process,” said Juan Lasso, CEO, T-Solar. “The unique value of BrightView’s solution lies in the combination of innovative process optimization tools with in-depth knowledge of process and manufacturing. This will help us improve the performance of thin-film silicon photovoltaic modules, reduce the production cost per module, and streamline project planning.”

T-Solar's installed capacity makes it a world leader in solar photovoltaic (PV) energy generation. It was set up as a business group in 2006 with a marked technological and industrial focus that led it to invest in the generation of clean power by using the energy emitted by the sun. In three years, it invested €1.07 bn in setting up a business project to cover all the links in the value chain for PV power. Its PV plants in Spain have an installed capacity of 143 MWp. In 2009 they produced a total of 218 GWh (enough to satisfy the annual consumption of a population of 50,000 households). It has a further 25 MWp under development in Spain and Italy, which are expected to come on line in June 2010. T-Solar also has a factory in Orense (Galicia, Spain), which manufactures large-area hydrogenated silicon thin-film photovoltaic modules (5.7m2). The T-Solar nominal manufacturing capacity is 45 MWp. The modules it produces will be partly used to supply the new PV plants that the company is planning to commission this year, and the rest will be shipped to third parties. www.tsolar.com